A Different Tale
by KagomeMiroku
Summary: Sweeney Todd in a different way if Lucy really had poisoned herself, and Mrs. Lovett was to be Johanna's gaurdian. Toddett
1. Prolouge

A Different Tale  
Prolouge  
Mrs. Lovett's P.O.V

My heals _click click click_ed against the cobblestone streets of London. My long and lovely dress, that would seem like rags to any other, fluttered in it's forest green wonder in the chill of the wind. I had my hands all tied up holding boxes of fresh cat meat that I bought from a broker in town. It was costly, but I hoped that it would bring in a scarce few more than my usual: Zero. There was scarcely a costumer to ever even walk within five paces of me meat shop: Mrs. Lovett's Meat Pie Emporium, but that didn't stop me from trying. I knew that one day, hopefully, I'd get at least one costumer. As soon as I unlocked the door to the shop, I got to work on making some pies.

"The Worst Pies In London" I'd call them to anyone that would care to listen, mostly to my upstairs neighbor, Mrs. Barker. Lucy, her first name was, married at a young age to a young man named Benjamin Barker, such a sweet man he was, had a fancy for him I did. They had a daughter too, Johanna, she called her, sweet Johanna with little yellow hair waving from her tiny head. She was but six years of age, living without a father, and barely had her mother. Lucy was one to mope around, and me, always wanting my own kin, took in little Johanna and helped Lucy raise her, although her real mum wasn't much of help.

Sometimes I liked to think that Johanna really was my lit'le girl, and Mr. Barker was my husband. I was widowed at an early time in my marriage to Albert Lovett, me darling Albert. He loved to stuff him face, that one did. Stuffed it 'til there was no room left in him, his heart gave out. Honestly, I couldn't say I ever truly was in love with the man, it was our friendship from our young years, through our families. Heh, he was a real sweet fella, but me heart always belonged to another, only Lucy snagged him first, and Albert had me.

_Bang! Bang_! I pounded the dough to the counter and wiped the sweat from me forehead, humming to myself about how horrible the pies were when the door opened. In stepped lit'le Johanna holding on to her lit'le dolly, skipping merrily along the way. She was such a sprightly thing, very chipper and always willing to help her ill minded mother. Poor thing she was, poor dear living like this. If only her father would get back soon, that'd be nice.

"Elo, love." I greeted her as she sat down at the ever-so always vacant table. Looking up from my work, I noticed that she hadn't been skipping, but stomping a bit merrily. "What's a'matta, dearie?"

"Mummy won't awaken." she spoke grumpily, kicking her feet against her seat. "I tried everything, but I don't understand."

I smiled meekly, and put a meat pie in front of her. "I'll go check on 'er, love, don't ya worry yer lit'le head of." I patted her head and opened the side door which led to the upstairs steps, wiping me hands on me apron the whole way up the metallic clinging steps. Swiftly as I could, I walked across the little levels platform and opened the door to her room, which used to be Mr. Barker's Barber Shop. It was pretty vacant, seemed as though no one lived there. Two wired beds sat on each end of the room: one occupied, a vanity with a dirty mirror propped up on it, and a chest opposite of the occupied bed. That's where Lucy was. She laid with her eyes closed and facing the ceiling and her right arm flailed over the side of the bed.

"Mrs. Barker?" I called to her in a whisper tone. My attempts to awaken her were fruitless since she didn't even stir at the sound of my voice. She laid there, and from a point, it hadn't even seemed like she was breathing. As I rounded the edge of bed, I noticed something a little queer. Not to far from Lucy's hand laid a bottle, propped on its side and spilt. "Mrs. Barker?" I called her name again, and truly she wasn't breathing. Cautiously I picked up the vile and held it close to me eyes, it had a danger symbol on it. Lucy had taken injected herself with poison.

"Good, Lord..."

I backed up and turned as I hit the door, racing down the steps and back into me shop where lit'le Johanna sat with her head down, kicking her feet less violently and humming a lit'le song about birds. Curious how she knew all those dif'rent types. She litfed her head as she heard the lit'le tinkle of the lit'le bell and smiled up at me.

"Did she awaken, Miss Nellie?" she asked curiously, she was very bright, but new not much of anything related to death.

"Yer mummy, love, she...she's goin' on a lit'le trip for a while, to visit a good friend of ours." I tried to put it as nicely as you could put the sense of death.

"Who is she going to visit?" asked poor Johanna.

I sighed and sat beside her, putting an arm around her shoulders. "To see the good Lord, she is." I said smiling weakly.

Johanna willingly smiled back. "Alright!" she chimed. "When will I see her next?"

"Not for a while, love, not for a good while..."

And I wasn't lying at all. Lucy was a virtuous woman and would definitely be greeted personally by the Lord, although suicide might damper her repu'ation with the good Lord. And, Johanna would one day again see her mother. But it killed me to see the lit'le one, she looked so much like Lucy, had only hints of the Mr. in her. She was so happy, and would later on, in time, realize her sweet mother's demise. I wouldn't break it to her, she'd find out on her own, that was plain and simple to understand, Johanna was a bright girl. Mr. Barker would be back from him prison trip, cause the man wasn't sentenced to life, he wasn't. Even if he was, he'd find a way out, Mr. Barker was very intelligent.

Johanna smiled up at me brightly and said, "Do we get to say goodbye?"

"Of course, love." I said to her, squeezing her shoulder."Let's go walk o'er and tell the priest abou' yer mum's lit'le trip."

We stood up and walked across the lane to the Church, where I explained to Father about Lucy's lit'le "trip" and arranged for a funeral in the next few days. Not many came to her farewell ceremony, and lit'le Johanna was confused on why exactly Lucy was being placed in the ground in a coffin.

"All in good time, love." I explained. "Let's go back home."


	2. Chapter 1

A Different Tale  
Chapter One:  
Mrs. Lovett's P.O.V

Soon enough, lit'le Johanna wasn't so lit'le anymore, and she caught eye of the Honorable Judge Turpin, just like her mum had. Speaking of Lucy, Johanna knew she was dead, and accepted it, and in Lucy's will, I was to be Johanna's legal gaurdian from then on, which Johanna hadn't mind. She'd call me Aunt Nellie, i'stead of Miss, which was fine by me. It was Johanna's fifteenth birthday, exactly fifteen years after the abcense of Mr. Barker. We were scarce on money, so I wasn't too eligible to but her a great gift of any liking, but I gave her somethat that was always close to me heart.

We sat in the settee room by the fire place, and I held a lit'le box on me lap, wrapped up and ribboned all for my Johanna. She was like a daughter, she was, and oh so beautiful.

"Auntie Nellie, you needn't have given me a gift." she said modestly as I handed her the box, her yellow ringlets falling in her face as she looked down on the box.

"Nonsense, dearie, only the best for me Johanna." I said smiling and holding her shoulder. "Now you open it. I hope ya like it."

Her scrawny fingers unlooped the ribbon graciously, she placed it on the couch, and then she unwrapped the paper away from the box and opened it. Gleaming eyes flickered over the item in the box: a jewel encrusted locket that me Albert gave to me. Rubies shaped in a heart around the heart penant and around it. Her eyes sparkled and she smiled, looking up at me and hugged me.

"Thank you so much, Auntie Nellie!" she praised and hugged me close.

I pulled away from her smiling, "And I have the perfect dress to match. Since we had you fit for a corset, you'll look wonders in it, with me pendant too." I said to her.

She beamed at me, pretty lit'le Johanna. And suddenly, the door opened and in stepped a man. A handsome man, with jet black hair which bore a pale white streak, and only one. His face was sullen and his clothes tattered, yet he shone like a god. An extremely pale, sullen, yet beautiful god. I stood up and patted Johanna's shoulder, then I walked over to him.

"Did you come here for a pie, sir?" I asked, going behind my counter that was clattered and overflowing with plates and pies.

He shook his head, he looked so familiar. His ruined clothes crazily suited him, he was charming in rags, and I could only imagine him all cleaned up. His voice, when he began to speak, was amazing it practically made me swoon. "I'm looking for a woman." he said.

Smirking, I leaned over on the counter and rested my chin on my fists. "Aren't all men? Now how could a nice, handsome man like you be all on his lonesome wit'out a lady friend to..." I walked around the counter and grabbed his arm. "...hold him?"

He brushed me off ever-so casually and sort of scoffed my way. I shrugged it off and walked back to my counter. Johanna strolled in, she had the necklace on that I had just given her. When the man saw her, he gasped and whispered, bearly audibly, "Lucy?"

But at the same time I said, "Times is hard, sir."

His eyes seemed transfixed on Johanna for a bit longer, then he turned back to me. I should've figured, no one could outshine my sweet Johanna.

"If times is so hard, ma'am, then why don't you rent out that room up above?" he asked. "I'd take it."

"I'm not sure you'd want to stay there, sir." spoke up Johanna. "They think it's haunted..."

"Haunted?" asked the man.

"You see," I butted it. "Something, not so nice happened up there. It all started with the barber and his wife, and their daughter," I pointed to my niece. "Johanna."

His eyes widened. "Johanna!" he yelled, and smiled so happily. He ran over and picked her up, spinning around and laughing. Then he turned back to me. "But where's my Lucy?"

Me jaw dropped, and I walked over to him in disbelief as Johanna ran behind me. My eyes blinked a few times, and I started making movements with my mouth, but no words came out, until I spluttered. "Benjamin Barker?"

Johanna's eyes widened and she and she gasped. "Daddy?"

He looked down, and whispered. "No, not Barker. It's Todd now, Sweeney Todd."

Everything seemed so ackward at the moment. We all stood on a disformed triangle, Johanna and I taken back by an overcomming strange feeling, and he seemed as though he was approving Johanna, since she had looked a lot like her mother. I was just taking this all in. Mr. Barker, I mean Mr. Todd wasback from jail, but how? I didn't think his sentence was already up, but it was a comfort to know that he was alive. The years may not have treated him so well, but he was still a god...


End file.
